Spring being all about rebirth writ large, the interplay of spring, the Summit and the creative work produced by student writers was also on Farnsworth’s mind.

A creative writing thesis “involves serious and deeply attentive discipline,” he said. “The experience offers those who undertake such projects a first experience in the practical and emotional challenges that the work of writing presents to anyone who seriously commits to it.”

Ashley Brunk ’13

In the reading, the protagonist is Sheila, who in high school received a heart transplant and is now a senior in college.

Sheila helped to organize a buddy program called Big One, LIttle One, and her buddy in the program is Jessica, who has the congenital spinal cord condition spina bifada.

Other characters are Mark and Robbie, a buddy pair that Sheila and Jessica recently met; Coop, Sheila’s doctor; and Professor Doerer, faculty adviser for the buddy program; and Caitlin, one of Sheila’s friends.

Eryn Gilchrist ’13

In the reading, the protagonist is Carlton Beavers, who is on a bus that’s traveling from New Oreans to El Paso. He’s sitting next to “the worst person you can get stuck next to on a bus,” says Gilchrist.

That man is named Marvin Deckler, and he’s “very large, very opinionated, and the only carry-on he has is a megaphone. And, he speaks almost exclusively in very bad puns.”

Joanna Harran ’13

Joanna Harran ’13

Harran, of Pukalani, Hawaii, reads three poems, two of which explore places in her native state.

http://www.bates.edu/news/files/2013/04/130329_0139-Harran1.mp3“Plumeria Graves” is about Keawala’i Church, a small stone building on the island of Maui, represents the blending of traditional Hawaiian polytheism with monotheism brought by Christian missionaries, explains Harran. Today, the church conducts services in Hawaiian, and is famed for its beautiful flowers, grounds and ocean views, and its distinctive, traditional Hawaiian stone graves.

http://www.bates.edu/news/files/2013/04/130329_0139-Harran2.mp3“New Woman” is about a woman trying to find a place in a family as she navigates a relationships with a man whose wife has recently died.

http://www.bates.edu/news/files/2013/04/130329_0139-Harran3.mp3“Paths” is set on the small Hawaiian island of Kaho’olawe. Used as a U.S. bombing range during World War II, the island today is littered with debris and unexploded ordnance.

During ancient times, Kaho’olawe was sacred land, used only for religious ceremonies and to train seafaring Polynesians how to use the stars for navigation. Still uninhabited today, Kaho’olawe is the focus of strategies to control erosion and re-establish vegetation.

Mollie Kervick ’13

Mollie Kervick ’13

Kervick, of Windsor Locks, Conn., reads five poems.

Her poetry, she says, asks explores the weaving of myth and family heritage. In the process, it asks and answers the question “How do I ground myself?” The act of writing, she concludes, “gives me a cultural context — something for me to grab on to.”

http://www.bates.edu/news/files/2013/04/130329_0139-Kervick1.mp3“Rose Anne Helferty” is based on a story that Kervick once heard about a relative named Rose Anne Helferty.

http://www.bates.edu/news/files/2013/04/130329_0139-Kervick5.mp3“Winter at 30 Elm Street” is about her home in Windsor Locks, the town where she, her father, and her grandfather grew up in. “It’s the hub of many childhood memories,” she says. “What I’ve learned about writing is how strange and scary memories can be, and what sticks out.

Ashley Lepre ’13

Ashley Lepre ’13

Lepre, of Fairfield, Conn., delivered a selection of poems chock full of smart wit.